I Have Flickers!

I seem to have some Flickers visiting my yard now, I've been wanting to see more of these around the yard, and prayed that they would show up, then they did! They also seem to be more shy than the Pileated woodpeckers, so getting photos of them isn't easy, I will be trying for some better ones that's for certain. But for now here's a shot of one of them out in the field, they are beautiful birds, this one is a red shafted one, the underside of it's wings are red.

And what would life be without the squirrels!? I now have four of these little fluffy tailed rodents scampering about the yard, they are always trying new tricks to get to the bird feeders. I was laying on the ground getting some shots of the squirrels when a Merlin swooped down right next to me through the yard, looking for a quick meal. It was going after the small birds that were all over the ground. Was too quick for me to get any photos, but if it keeps coming around, I will keep trying for a picture of it.

I think this next squirrel is one of the babies, there are two that are much smaller than the usual two I have coming around, a little less shy than the adults.

There were two squirrels at the suet feeder, when the Hairy Woodpecker came for a visit just as she does every day. She landed in one of the upper branches of the cedar tree, and was watching carefully as I chased off the squirrels. Once I had chased off the squirrels I told her it was safe to come down and the feeder was all hers now. She quickly hopped down the side of the tree and started pecking away at the suet with me standing right next to it, she isn't very shy at all. Which is nice because it lets me get some decent photos of her.

A Barn Warming Party

New plastic barn bird feeder at garage sale - $3.00

Pole to mount it on - $8.56

Cement to secure the pole -$3.49

Hours of entertainment watching the birds feed,

and photographing Gold Finches - Priceless!

My husband picked up this new barn feeder at a garage sale for me. While he was napping I took the post hole digger and dug a hole for a pole so we could mount it in such a way that we wouldn't have to worry about raccoons getting into it at night. Then I woke him up and told him the hole was ready we need to go get some cement and some pipe, so we went to the hardware store picked up what we needed, and got the pole set in the ground. I put the feeder up the following evening, then for the next two days the nuthatches had it to themselves. The goldfinches figured out yesterday that it was another feeder, and have been having a party since.

The squirrel pictured below is still planning it's attack, but has yet to make any attempts to get to the new feeder.

Great Horned Owl

I thought it might be fun to start with some of the most recent visitors to my yard. I had some Great Horned Owls in the spring, they disappeared for bit, and now I am seeing some again. So here are a few shots of one I have been seeing around. Captured these shots on the 23rd.

In this first shot the owl is ruffling it's feathers, just after landing in the tree. I heard what I thought might of been a Great Blue Heron, grabbed my camera and headed out to the pond, and found a Great Horned Owl instead.

After taking a few shots of the owl, I looked away for just a moment and it flew off, I didn't see what direction it went, and since they are so silent when they fly I never heard it either. I went back to the house, and fount it in a tree near the house. Here's a shot of it there.

Here is another shot of her/him later in the day, I went for a walk down the driveway, and saw it sitting up in a tree alongside the driveway. The owl just sat on the branch and watched me as I walked by underneath it. I always wonder what they must be thinking when they watch you like that. You may want to click on this picture to get a larger view.

A New Blog

I decided to begin a new blog, so others can continue to enjoy the many critters and birds that visit my yard. You can find my first blog here, one that got started in order to document a hummingbird that built her nest in my yard.